On TV

THIS is the thought for today: The things you think you know best have the power to surprise you most.

Someone passed on these words of wisdom near the start of this week's episode of Shameless, the Paul Abbott-created series set on a Manchester estate. They were worried that normally-unkempt back gardens were looking like Kew Gardens and residents behaving like Capability Brown.

The reason for all the green-fingered activity became clear. It followed the council's new initiative encouraging tenants to show care for their homes. The incentive was a year's free rent to the winner of the competition. All the horticultural activity was motivated by financial, rather than aesthetic rewards.

This second series is proving as lively and exuberant as the first, familiarity with the Gallagher family and their circle breeding not contempt but something akin to love.

So far, the Gallagher children have been relegated to the background and more focus put on neighbours Veronica and Kev (magnificently played by Maxine Peake and Dean Lennox Kelly).

Veronica, a human volcano just waiting to erupt, wanted to know why Kev allowed their back garden to resemble "Steptoe's bleeding yard". The characters in Shameless rarely use a three or five-letter word when a four-letter one is available, so this was one of Veronica's gentler rebukes.

She had harsher words to say to mother Carol, a woman of advancing years with a toy boy in tow. Phrases such as "malicious old bitch" were used instead of "Mummy dearest".

Meanwhile, Fiona was worried about texts that boyfriend Steve was receiving from a female named Kerry Ann. Even worse, he was lying about them.

Then there's patriarch Frank Gallagher (David Threfall, letting it all hang out), a man addicted to alcohol and tobacco not work and family responsibility. He'd been left to cope with the baby twins while wife Sheila went off to visit her sick mother.

This was a recipe for disaster. "What about food?," demanded Frank.

She indicated all the baby food she'd left. Frank wasn't impressed. "I meant for me," he said.

Sheila was ready for this. She opened the cupboard to reveal shelves stacked high with cans of beer. So what was more natural when the local pub was raided and closed by police than for Frank to transfer the bar to his front room. The sight of dozens of men with a beer in one hand and a baby in the other would have brought tears to the eyes of Mary Poppins.

Meanwhile, Carol was having a birthday party, although was it wise to put her arsonist son Marty in charge of the barbecue? He was far too liberal with his squirting of lighter fuel.

It could have been worse. In fact, it was worse, when Marty let slip a secret concerning Kev. And then when one of the twins went missing, apparently in the company of Psycho Sally, a woman who doesn't sound as if she's social services' ideal answer to childcare problems.

Shameless is quite unlike any other drama on TV at the moment. And all the better for it.